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Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Slow Deciders make Better Strategists
by Mark Chussil
There are many ways to split people into two groups. Young and old. Rich and poor. Us and them. The 98% who can do arithmetic and the 3% who cannot. Those who split people into two groups and those who don’t.

Then there’s the people who make good competitive-strategy decisions, and those who don’t.

It’s not easy to split people into the good/bad strategy decision-makers. Track records are useful but they’re not unambiguous, and those getting started have no track records at all. General intelligence and business degrees seem to be good signs, but smart people with business degrees don’t agree on what works in strategy. Veterans with specific industry expertise look promising, but so do outsiders with new ideas.

What about mindset? We know people put credence in confidence. However, it seems to me there’s a difference between someone who’s confident after laboring over a thoughtful decision and someone who’s confident with a snap judgment. It seems to me there’s a difference between someone who’s unsure after serious contemplation and someone who’s unsure about a quick pick.

Imagine that we can record decision-makers’ solutions to a competitive-strategy problem. We also ask how confident they feel that they’ve found a good answer and how long it took them to find it. We can categorize them, then, like this:

I’ve got such a database of people, those who have entered the Top Pricer Tournament. The database includes business executives, consultants, professors, and students. I gave all of them the same unfamiliar but straightforward pricing-strategy problem.

Dozens of Tournament entrants said they were very confident in their strategies after making a fast decision, dozens said they were very confident after a slow decision, and so on. The phrases in the boxes are how I interpret the mindsets of the people in those boxes. In the analysis below I’ll leave out the respondents in the “I guessed” box because they seem unrepresentative of what happens in real life, where strategists work at strategy decisions until they’re confident in their answers or they’ve worked long enough to conclude they’re not going to make further progress.

In general, the I-already-knows, confident in their snap judgments, and the Now-I-knows, confident after pondering, tend to be older males. Male business students are also represented in the I-already-knows. The I-don’t-knows, unsure of their thoughtful decisions, tend to be somewhat younger. And females make up well over half of the I-don’t-knows, a much higher percentage than in the other mindsets.

Make your prediction: which of the three styles selected the best-performing Tournament strategies?

The best-performing group: the I-don’t-knows.

Perhaps it’s about age: we gain confidence over time, but maybe not skill. Perhaps it’s about gender: rather than the conventional wisdom that females don’t have enough confidence, maybe males have too much. I don’t have enough data yet to assess those hypotheses. And perhaps the results will change as the sample sizes grow.

Still, the I-don’t-knows’ success fits my business war-gaming experience.

In one case, the new vice president of a troubled business brought together about thirty managers, each with decades in the business. The managers considered the war game an amusing waste of time. They all knew the answer already, they said, and no other options were possible. Then, role-playing their business and its competitors, they discovered that their already-known answer simply would not work. The manag­ers suddenly found new options. We war-gamed one, and it worked, and they rolled it out in real life, and it worked. The new VP got promoted.

It’s not that the managers didn’t care or were incompetent; it’s that they were overconfident. When you think you know the answer, you sincerely believe it’s a waste of time to keep looking for it. It feels like continuing to search for your keys after you’ve found them.

I think the essential lesson for competitive-strategy decision-makers is not so fast, in both senses of the phrase: take your time and don’t be so sure. That’s the mindset used by the new VP and the I-don’t-knows.

The willingness to apply that mindset is what separates the good decision-makers from the bad.
Source: Harvard Business Review

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.·. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, SMHS .·.
Especialista en Management Estratégico, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones
Representante de The George Washington University en Foros de LatAm desde 2001
Representante de The George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences para los Países de LatAm desde 1996
Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en GWU School of Medicine & Health Sciences (Washington DC)
CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
TE Oficina: ( 0054) 11 - 3532 - 0510
TE Móvil (Local): ( 011 ) 15 - 4420 - 5103
TE Móvil (Int´l): ( 0054) 911 - 4420 - 5103
Skype: medinacasabella


MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
(mamc.latam@gmail.com; +5411-3532-0510)
es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
Management Estratégico,
Gestión del Cambio,
Marketing Estratégico,
Inversiones,
Gestión Educativa,
Capacitación

de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

a) Salud, Farma y Biotech,
b) Industria y Servicios,
c) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
d) Gobierno y ONGs.
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Monday, November 21, 2016

How great Firms prosper through Entrepreneurial Thinking


 Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset

  • Why are some businesses more vulnerable to disruptive change than others?
  • Should big companies engage in entrepreneurship?
  • How do you stay ahead of the competition?

 In Achieving Longevity: How Great Firms Prosper Through Entrepreneurial Thinking, Jim Dewald, Dean of the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, former CEO and entrepreneur, provides advice on how to create a culture of entrepreneurial thinking. He offers a method to combine the strength of a strong, established business with the innovation of a startup.

Prepare Yourself for Real Disruptive Change

First, that while we think the world is changing rapidly, in fact, we continue to rely on a platform that arose from the invention of 3 general purpose technologies in the 1870’s: the internal combustion engine, the light bulb, and the telephone. Even with the computer and the Internet, we have spent decades boxing in this amazing new technology to fit our paradigm need for a faster, smaller, cheaper phone. So, while we think we are in the midst of rapid change, the western world is in fact obsessed with ensuring we stick with the old world and reward refinements of tired mature ways of doing things. When real change comes, will business leaders be prepared? I don’t think so.

One of the reasons why we won’t respond well when real change comes is that while ideas are abundant, small start-up ventures lack the resources – people, money, physical assets — to launch these ideas. They also lack the credibility, networks, access to customers, suppliers, government officials, etc. This limits their ability to move these ideas forward, no matter how great they may be. At the same time, existing companies are flush with people, money, networks, customers, and, most important, credibility and brand value. But what they lack is an entrepreneurial mindset. To move forward, companies need to resist the rhetoric of finding and sticking to a narrow form of sustainable competitive advantage, and instead adopt a model of strategic entrepreneurship that promotes transformational growth and longevity.

The fundamental impact of disruptive change is that our organizations are not built to manage change very well. Through principles such as sustainable competitive advantage, we tend to use fixed mindsets that build a sort of impenetrable armor around the firm’s processes and procedures, instead of being flexible and adaptable. When disruptive technologies or business models present an alternative, firms resist. Indeed, even customers often resist, as we remain stuck in our paradigms formed as noted above. However, in time, customers adapt because they do not have the level of sunk investment in the old ways that companies often do. Time and again, rigid non-entrepreneurial firms fall by the wayside.

There are many very extreme examples of this phenomenon. Think of Kodak, which is a firm that actually pioneered digital photography, but in the end was unable to adapt to this powerful disruptive technology. 

Embrace a Spirit of Entrepreneurship

I emphasize the importance of adopting three points:
  1. Recognize that opportunities are developed at all levels of the organization.
  2. Build a culture that embraces and supports entrepreneurship.
  3. Consciously develop support for entrepreneurial initiatives through effectual processes or bricolage.
The key is leadership, not only in words, but in action. It is imperative that the CEO endorse an entrepreneurial culture by example – championing new ideas. In fact, a failure or two is good because it demonstrates that even the CEO recognizes that not every entrepreneurial idea is destined for success, and it is important to manage your investment and ensure that no one new venture will take down the ship.

The Key Elements of a Good Corporate Culture

There are many theories on this question, and I included quite a few in my book. In the end, the key elements are:
  1. Provide open opportunities for opportunity development – these include group time (because we know that mixing people with diverse expertise and background can lead to innovative solutions), plus unstructured open thinking time (such as 3M’s famous “tinkering” time).
  2. Adopt a learning culture – growth mindsets are essential, pursuing what could be as opposed to why this won’t work.
  3. Accept failure, and the importance of learning from failure.
  4. Adopt bricolage (known outcomes, with unknown ways of getting there), or effectuation (building on invention, experiment, and science) as frameworks for pursuing each entrepreneurial initiative (purposefully).
Encourage Creativity at all Levels

The first thing I would say is that leaders must recognize that organizations need time to change. This is not an overnight process and will require considerable and repetitive actions and wins to change. And failure is a key component – an organization can move far closer to being creative and adopting entrepreneurial thinking by showing that a person with a great idea that failed in implementation is celebrated as thinking outside the box, rather than penalized for failing.

Researchers have studied the importance of story-telling in organizations, and how a lasting culture can be built around well-known, maybe even legendary, stories that come from the history of the organization. The dimensions of story-telling I describe in my book include equality (versus inequality), security (versus insecurity), and control (versus lack of control). Through story-telling of actual events that happened in the organization’s history, employees are able to gauge whether the organization will endorse or shun creativity at all levels.

Middle management is often ignored in the leadership literature. What role do they have in this type of change management? Middle managers are key, but they do require the support of senior leadership to fully embrace entrepreneurial thinking and to develop an entrepreneurial culture. But it is a mutually reinforcing action, particularly when change first comes about. Senior leaders rely on middle managers to develop and implement an entrepreneurial culture, and middle managers rely on senior leadership to hold firm to the challenge, particularly when faced with failures.

I often get asked how can the middle manager make a difference. Stephen Covey addresses this point in Habit 1 (Be Proactive) from his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. As he says, proactive people focus on their circle of influence and make change within that circle, as opposed to others who will obsess about the concern of not having support from others. 

Beware of the Roadblocks

All organizations face significant barriers to change, and I categorize them as resistance from within, resistance from the supply chain, and resistance from the customer. Each of these barriers can be overwhelming to overcome, and a firm must be resolute in its focus and dedication to becoming an entrepreneurial organization. Specific techniques and tools can help with each constituency. For instance, customers can be engaged in the development of the entrepreneurial idea; a firm may need alternate suppliers for their most adventurous initiatives, and change within the firm requires a strategic consideration of the cognitive, resource, motivational, and political hurdles.

Source: SKIP PRICHARD Leadership Insights

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TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
de las necesidades de su Organización:


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ó al TE: +5411.3532.0510


.·. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, SMHS .·.
Especialista en Management Estratégico, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones
Representante de The George Washington University en Foros de LatAm desde 2001
Representante de The George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences para los Países de LatAm desde 1996
Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en GWU School of Medicine & Health Sciences (Washington DC)
CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
TE Oficina: ( 0054) 11 - 3532 - 0510
TE Móvil (Local): ( 011 ) 15 - 4420 - 5103
TE Móvil (Int´l): ( 0054) 911 - 4420 - 5103
Skype: medinacasabella


MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
(mamc.latam@gmail.com; +5411-3532-0510)
es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
Management Estratégico,
Gestión del Cambio,
Marketing Estratégico,
Inversiones,
Gestión Educativa,
Capacitación

de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

a) Salud, Farma y Biotech,
b) Industria y Servicios,
c) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
d) Gobierno y ONGs.
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Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Aligning Board and Management 
during Corporate Transformation
Berndt Brunow has a long history of leading corporate transformation as a CEO, a chairman of a board of directors, and a board member for a variety of leading companies in the Nordic region. As a result of his firsthand experiences, he is uniquely qualified to discuss the respective roles of management and the board, as well as the challenges of gaining alignment during times of change.

Brunow recently spoke with Teemu Ruska, a senior partner in the Helsinki office of The Boston Consulting Group. Edited excerpts from that conversation follow.

You’ve been involved in several major transformations, both as chairman and acting CEO. In your experience, what is the first step in achieving the transformation’s goals?

Well, I think first you need to take one step back and say, “What caused the need for transformation?” If it was due to a crisis and came out of necessity, and you’ve lost the confidence of major stakeholders, you need to ask yourself, “Should the board drive the transformation?” And maybe more important, “Is this the right management for the transformation?” Only then, when you’ve dealt with those questions, can you start working on the actual issues.

Alignment on the process and metrics is critical for any transformation effort. How have you ensured this alignment?

It is very essential to set up a transformation office or project management office that is manned not by volunteers, but by people whom you truly trust. Interestingly, you don’t necessarily find these people in top management. They may be in different parts of the organization, because you need transformers in many areas. Make sure that the transformation office works day and night, but also see to it that the people involved get the right attention, resources, and appreciation. The board should meet more frequently during this period, and the project manager should report regularly to the board on the transformation’s progress. In the organization the manager reports, of course, to the CEO.

It has been said that transforming a company is like changing the tires of a car while it’s speeding down the road. What is the key to managing day-to-day operations during a major transformation effort?

Well, there are cars with tires that are so well balanced that they can continue to run even if a tire is lost. I think that’s the key. You need to communicate clearly to the whole organization the need for transformation. At the same time, you need to convey the message that there is a future only if we keep up the day-to-day work. The company still has customers, financial institutions, and other stakeholders. If we lose their confidence, then the whole transformation is not worthwhile.

Which aspects of the transformations you worked on were the most difficult and why?

Two aspects which I recall. One is how best to deal with people. Because time is often limited, you may have to use your intuition. Is this the person who will stay the distance and be there at the end, driving the company forward after the transformation? That’s tough. It’s also difficult, of course, to ask those who need to go. We also had to make some very tough deals with stakeholders. In one case in particular with a financial institution, the company was almost in receivership. We had to abstain from dividend distribution and agree that if change didn’t happen within a certain time frame, the financial institution would step in and take over the job. That’s when the fun is definitely over.

Looking back, what are the most critical success factors when you’re undertaking a major change initiative?

It’s all about people. You need to convey to the whole organization what the transformation is about and why we’re doing it, giving them the facts and numbers. Blue-collar workers are smart people. They want straight talk, not bull. They understand facts and figures, especially if the transformation is initiated by a crisis. But it takes time to get everyone on board, and it’s hard work. Because face-to-face contact is vital, it’s important to travel to different locations. At the same time, you need to continuously assess people and make changes to the organization.

What was the toughest decision you had to make in the course of these transformations?

Surprisingly, the toughest decisions involve the sudden hurdles or obstacles that you need to deal with on Monday afternoon because they need to be out of the way by Tuesday morning. In hindsight, maybe they’re not even that big. Then again, many small decisions are actually vital. Then there are the big decisions—like having to terminate the contract of the managing director or needing to find a new chief financial officer very quickly in the midst of a transformation.

With the benefit of hindsight are there any things that you would have done differently?

In all cases, we should have started the transformation earlier. And as chairman of the board, I would have worked less on trust and more on tough facts and figures. At the other end, we may have been premature in thinking that the transformation was completed. Perhaps we should have continued a little bit longer with the transformation office and the project itself. At my age, you know, you don’t change much, but you can be positively surprised by how valuable and important experience is.

What words of advice would you give to other executives who are leading major transformations?

 Speed. Go for it, but go all the way. Transformation comes out of necessity. There are great companies that see transformation as part of continuously going forward, and they build a transformation culture. But if your company is more traditional and something external happens that threatens you, then time is already short—and there’s little time left. Speed.

 Source: The Boston Consulting Group

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.·. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, SMHS .·.
Especialista en Management Estratégico, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones
Representante de The George Washington University en Foros y Ferias de LatAm desde 2001
Representante de The George Washington University Medical Center para los Países de LatAm desde 1996
Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en GWU School of Medicine & Health Sciences (Washington DC)
CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
TE Oficina: ( 0054) 11 - 3532 - 0510
TE Móvil (Local): ( 011 ) 15 - 4420 - 5103
TE Móvil (Int´l): ( 0054) 911 - 4420 - 5103
Skype: medinacasabella


MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
(mamc.latam@gmail.com; +5411-3532-0510)
es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
Management Estratégico,
Gestión del Cambio,
Marketing Estratégico,
Inversiones,
Gestión Educativa,
Capacitación

de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

a) Salud, Farma y Biotech,
b) Industria y Servicios,
c) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
d) Gobierno y ONGs.
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Thursday, November 10, 2016

What's the Archetype of a next-decade Leader?
by Alaina Love


“Does a leadership archetype exist? And if it does, how do I find more people who are genetically wired that way?”

That was the tough question posed to me recently by Jeff, a CEO who was desperately seeking talent for his fast-growing startup. We had been discussing the passion archetypes of his top team and reviewing the particular strengths the archetypes each person held could bring to the business. Two universities have studied the passion archetypes, which were first identified and measured through the Passion Profiler, a tool developed by Purpose Linked Consulting.

The conclusion is that we are all wired with 10 distinct passion archetypes, but we express them uniquely, and each archetype demonstrates a particular pattern of behavior in the workplace (and in one’s personal life as well.) Here is an overview of their contribution to leadership thinking:


Look, this is probably my last startup,” Jeff continued. “I want the company to thrive well into the future, and I want to develop a stable of potential successors to take this business to the next level. Technology is changing at light speed and we’ve got to do more than just keep up; we’ve got to anticipate and innovate. I need someone with the energy and mental chops to make that happen.”

I asked Jeff about his current staff and whom among them he thought performed particularly well. He began by telling me about the woman he’d hired to lead the tech team who had a strong Processor archetype and could be counted on for efficiency and accuracy.

Another star, in Jeff’s opinion, was the president of manufacturing. He was an “Olympic-level Builder”, who delivered product on time and within quality standards despite battling numerous supplier challenges over the last six months. In Jeff’s estimation, these two were the leaders he could count on today, but he wasn’t certain they could effectively lead the company in the coming decade, when competition in his industry sector would be even more intense.

Jeff is thinking like a next-decade leader. He understands that success in an environment of growing unpredictability and change will require more than effective execution and low production costs. Without infusing into the culture a thirst for innovation and the energy required to thrive and win, his company could end up as a footnote in some Harvard case study.

My experience with leaders who have the passion archetypes to deliver the leadership agility that Jeff’s company requires in the next decade suggests that he needs someone who is a Builder, courageous enough to pursue huge goals even when the odds are tough, someone for whom no effort is too great. His company will need a Transformer, an individual who thrives in change and identifies the new order that will emerge from it, well before others do.

Jeff also needs a Conceiver, an innovative, game-changing thinker, who will push the organization and him into new intellectual territory and challenge the status quo. And, because growing his business will require that the company move into uncharted territory and new countries, Jeff needs a Connector who is gifted at building relationships and negotiating across divides.

As we poured over the accomplishments of specific staff members and reviewed their passion archetypes, it became clear to Jeff that he was looking for more than just one person; he needed a team of talent who would collectively comprise the “leadership archetype” he was seeking.

Thriving in 2020 and beyond will require that Jeff think of his staff as a collection of talent, who bring not only skill-based expertise and experience to the business, but also a unique combination of passions that provide the organization with the diversity of perspective so needed for future success.

There is not a leader that I know worth the respect of his or her colleagues who isn’t like Jeff — worried about developing the talent today that their organizations will need tomorrow. Doing so requires that these leaders look beyond skill-building as the primary methodology for growing capability in the business. While it is a part of the solution required for next-decade leadership, the competitive advantage of leveraging workplace passions cannot be overstated or ignored.
Source: SmartBrief

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TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
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.·. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, SMHS .·.
Especialista en Management Estratégico, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones
Representante de The George Washington University en Foros y Ferias de LatAm desde 2001
Representante de The George Washington University Medical Center para los Países de LatAm desde 1996
Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en GWU School of Medicine & Health Sciences (Washington DC)
CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
TE Oficina: ( 0054) 11 - 3532 - 0510
TE Móvil (Local): ( 011 ) 15 - 4420 - 5103
TE Móvil (Int´l): ( 0054) 911 - 4420 - 5103
Skype: medinacasabella


MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
(mamc.latam@gmail.com; +5411-3532-0510)
es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
Management Estratégico,
Gestión del Cambio,
Marketing Estratégico,
Inversiones,
Gestión Educativa,
Capacitación

de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

a) Salud, Farma y Biotech,
b) Industria y Servicios,
c) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
d) Gobierno y ONGs.
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